20th Century Fox has officially fired director Brian Singer from Queen’s upcoming biographic film Bohemian Rhapsody, starring Primetime Emmy Award Winner Rami Malek as Queen’s lead singer Freddie Mercury.

A week ago, it was reported that Singer had failed to return to filming from their Thanksgiving break, as he had “a personal health matter” to attend, with no further explanation as to what he was referring, forcing production into a halt.

This was not the first time Singer had failed to appear on set as, according to The Hollywood Reporter, cinematographer Thomas Newton Sigel had to step in to helm the director’s place some of the days Singer was absent before and after the Thanksgiving break incident happened.

Singer’s behaviour had been questionable at times, as reportedly, Tom Hollander, the actor who plays Queen manager Jim Beach, had quit the film due to of Singer’s behaviour, but was persuaded to return soon afterwards and Rami Malek, the lead of the film, had complained to Fox about Singer not being present on set, his unreliability and unprofessionalism on set and beyond.

The tension between Malek and Singer grew to the point where a confrontation happened, and even though it not turned into a physical confrontation, it did involve Singer throwing an object. However, it was said they had patched things up and they were expected to resume filming in the upcoming days but… well, you know the story.

According to THR, Singer had been warned -by Fox Film chairman and CEO Stacey Snider and Fox Film vice chairman and president of production Emma Watts- before production even began that they wouldn’t tolerate any unprofessional behaviour on his part. They even had a representative from the Directors Guild of America on set to monitor the situation at all times.

Following the news of his departure from the biopic, Singer released a statement claiming Fox “would not permit him to [honour Queen’s legacy] because he needed to temporarily put his health, and the health of his loved ones, first.”

In that same statement, Singer claimed that he and Malek never had heated arguments, just the occasional difference in the creative process.

“Rumors that my unexpected departure from the film was sparked by a dispute I had with Rami Malek are not true.  While, at times, we did have creative differences on set, Rami and I successfully put those differences behind us and continued to work on the film together until just prior to Thanksgiving.”

You can read his whole statement here.

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Bohemian Rhapsody is set to premiere on December 25, 2018.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter